Valentine's Day, Lots of 1,000 Meter Repeats, and a Big Pot of Chicken Soup

Had a great last couple of days, and we already have made it through "Hump Day" as we call it in preschool.

Monday: Happy Valentine's Day! First Valentine's Day as an old married lady and it was a great one. The only bad thing was Sunday night I had too much chocolate before bed, and couldn't sleep! Penny and I tossed and turned all night. I decided to move my run for after school so I could be better rested for party day at school.

What is better than waking up to a nice Valentine's Day card and Godiva chocolates from your husband? He put them on my treadmill to surprise me :). He got his own treat:
Special donuts!
Party Day at school was so fun. All (18) kids took out their decorated boxes and we exchanged cards and treats. There was an unbelievalbe amount of sweets and candy in my classroom, each kid consumed over 5 cookies before leaving at the end of the day, not including the shoeboxes full of candy they had! For how much sugar the kids had they were so sweet and good. I got cards from all of the kids, plus lots of candy treats. Days like this make me feel lucky to be a teacher.

After school, I had a good mileage run around home. It was rainy and windy so I had a hard time getting motivated, but I actually ran a 8 miles instead of my planned 7. After showering, Jordan and I dropped off Penny at my parents and went to Legends of the North Shore for our Valentine's day dinner. I love this place because you can bring your own wine and everything is so yummy. It's a small place, but we enjoy it - it's probably our favorite restaurant! I had a salad and gnocchi (good carbo-loading) and Jordan had wedding soup and spaghetti and meatball. Not meatballs, because it was just one giant, monster meatball.

I got two new Pandora charms from my boo and we got to watch part of the Westminster dog show - we were very excited to see the pretty corgi, Molly. She was so cute. Penny was very festive for her first Valentine's Day with us.
Tuesday: Woke up early to hit the weights at the gym, followed by having my favorite hazelnut coffee at Panera. After school, I was disappointed to see that the track at the NAI complex was not clear all the way around. I had 7 x1,000 meter repeats to get in, with 3 minutes rest. I wanted to run at least 10 miles so I could get in my weekly mileage of 70. I had to be creative and create my own 1,000 meter track around the two schools' parking lots. Such a hard workout! I did not hit my goal times (3:55) , but was pretty close and my legs were aching at the end so I feel like it was a great workout, especially since it was not as flat or fast as a track. I almost ran into a kid walking to his carpool and had to go around other teachers leaving the school for the day. My splits: 4:00, 4:02, 3:57, 3:57, 3:56, 3:57, 3:58. Most 1,000 meter repeats ever (before I usually did 5-6) and I got 11 miles out of it.
My reward: BF Caitlin (yes, we have the same name) was in town for a training in Cranberry so we went to Olive Garden for soup, salad, and breadsticks, followed by dessert at the best frozen yogurt place, Simply Yogurt (in Cranberry). Good but busy day!

Today: Dragged my butt out of bed at 5:30 to run an easy 7 around my nieghborhood. After school, I did lots of laundry and made a massive pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. I was a fan, and I have enough to freeze for about 8 more dinners with Jordan, haha. Here is a picture of the big pot:Tomorrow it looks like it's going to be 59 degrees when I'm running!